PDF file - Rene V Steiner

TIANBING LI
TIANBING LI
PAINTINGS
2000-2003
COVER | NATURE MORTE CHINOISE | OIL ON CANVAS | 55 X 46 CM PER PANEL | 2002
KASHYA HILDEBRAND GALLERY
TIANBING LI
Tianbing Li was born in 1974 in Guilin, China.
There, he discovered painting at the early age
of 6, learning traditional Chinese technique
(ink on paper). A few years later, he started his
training in modern western techniques. His artistic
mastery was soon recognized and he received
many awards during his adolescence. In 1997,
Tianbing Li left China for Paris to attend the Ecole
Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Today, he
still resides in Paris but makes frequent trips to
China. His dream is to have a studio in Peking
and be able to paint all over the world.
work. In his 1998 series representing different
images of the Buddha, the artist selected colors
reminiscent of traditional Chinese painting black, ochre and white – but applied them in
an oil based medium. Moreover, his subject
– a traditional symbol of serenity – was painted
using an expressionist touch with rich impasto
and crumpled canvas. The result is disquieting. In
these paintings Buddha’s peaceful pose is tinged
with angst; even a feeling of violence, and the
spectator is reminded of the precarious state of
traditional Chinese culture.
The state of contemporary Chinese culture is
a constant preoccupation for Tianbing Li. His
position between eastern and western culture as
well as his broad knowledge of traditional and
modern painting provide most of the material
for his art. The destruction of Chinese artistic
traditions, first by the Cultural Revolution and
then by the invasion of western culture, especially
American, is a major theme in his paintings.
“Hybrid” might be the best word to describe Li’s
Two other contemporary series use the same
technique: Victims, portraits of Chinese prisoners
made just before their execution and Assembly
of Dignitaries with their Head Severed, where
sculptures of Chinese emperors from the Tang
and Song dynasties (China’s golden age) are
represented with missing heads, replaced by
portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Mao or Buddha,
amongst others. These works denounce the
violence of Chinese politics, but also the role
played by western culture in the destruction of
China’s cultural past.
When Li uses photographs or sculptures as
models, he deconstructs them in order to destroy
their status as representations of reality. In
working away from Realism, he also criticizes the
style favored by official Chinese artists in their
ideological representations of Chinese communist
society. On the other hand, his comments on a
society governed by false images of itself and his
use of a similar imagery, sometimes remind us of
the work of Andy Warhol. Like the late American
painter, Tianbing Li is also fascinated by consumer
society and the role it plays in the definition of
our identity. The artist explores this theme in
an ensemble of 24 self-portraits named Clone,
in which he paints computer-altered images of
himself incorporating logos of famous brands,
a barcode or an email address. Some portraits
express amazement or irony, but others clearly
display feelings of fear and horror.
The frailty of personal identity is one of Tianbing
Li’s favorite subjects. In the Victim series, the
artist is trying to illustrate its transient nature
by capturing the instant between existence and
disappearance. The cultural identity of the artists,
explored in self-portraits, is also interrogated.
Finally, the reality of identity is questioned in his
paintings using images of celebrities. In a series
entitled Icon, Tianbing Li uses hair on canvas
to recreate famous images of personalities:
Bob Marley, Leonardo di Caprio, Zidane, Mao,
etc. The fragility of his medium and the infinite
lightness of hair, contrast starkly with the imposing
nature of the portraits.
In 2002, abandoning his somber palette, Li starts
to work with bright blue and pink. If visually the
new paintings are very different from the rest of
his work, the artist’s preoccupation remains the
same. The sea blue used in the series Chinese Still
Life, is an allegory for capitalism, which came
to China through sea-borne trade. Similarly,
pink represents consumer culture and “a world
submerged in desire and yearning”. Each piece
of the series uses traditional Chinese floral
painting as a model, and appears from afar to
depict plants, flowers, birds and insects. But on
closer inspection, one discovers among them
body parts (often sexual), toys and industrial
products. The lovely landscape with bright
colors suddenly transforms itself into a scenery
of corrupted, polluted and decaying elements.
Under the alluring world of capitalism something
is rotten.
The subject in Li’s painting is often dissolving.
Nothing is ever what it seems; nothing is
permanent. That in of itself is a good and bad
thing. The artist is well aware of the danger of
a frozen culture. For him, the artist must move
incessantly in order to stay alive. Yet, at the same
time, Li is also nostalgic for China’s great cultural
past that is in danger of being totally forgotten.
Between the old and the new, the east and the
west Tianbing Li plays with humor and skillfully
handles the role of mediator.
LEGUME 2030 #1 | OIL ON CANVAS | 162 X 130 CM | 2003
LEGUME 2030 #2 | OIL ON CANVAS | 162 X 130 CM | 2003
METIS #1 | OIL ON CANVAS | 150 X 150 CM | 2003
METIS #2 | OIL ON CANVAS | 150 X 150 CM | 2003
ARBRE #1 | OIL ON CANVAS | 200 X 200 CM | 2002
ARBRE #2 | OIL ON CANVAS | 80 X 162 CM | 2003
ARBRE #3 | OIL ON CANVAS
200 X 100 CM | 2003
BLACK HOLE | OIL ON CANVAS | 270 X 210 CM | 2003
NATURE CHINOISE #1 | OIL ON CANVAS | 130 X 97 CM | 2003
NATURE CHINOISE #2 | OIL ON CANVAS | 130 X 97 CM | 2003
NATURE CHINOISE #3 | OIL ON CANVAS | 130 X 97 CM | 2003
NATURE CHINOISE #4 | OIL ON CANVAS | 130 X 97 | 2003
NATURE CHINOISE #5 | OIL ON CANVAS | 130 X 97 CM | 2003
TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS | LACQUER ON CANVAS | 162 X 114 CM & 162 X 130 CM 2001
PARADIS | OIL ON CANVAS | 162 X 130 CM | 2003
ESPECE 2030 I - IV | OIL ON CANVAS | EACH PANEL 55 X 46 CM | 2003
JOUET #1-4 | OIL ON CANVAS | 55 X 46 CM | 2002
SELF PORTRAIT 1 | LACQUER ON CANVAS | 162 X 114 CM | 2003
SELF PORTRAIT 2 | LACQUER ON CANVAS | 162 X 130 CM | 2003
SELF PORTRAIT 3 | OIL ON CANVAS | 130 X 97 CM | 2003
SELF PORTRAIT 4 | OIL ON CANVAS | 130 X 97 CM | 2003
ICONE | HAIR ON CANVAS | EACH PANEL 55 X 46 CM (9 PANELS IN TOTAL) | 2000
VICTIME 1 - V | OIL ON CANVAS | EACH PANEL 92 X 73 CM | 2002
MAO WITH FRIENDS | OIL ON CANVAS | 200 X 200 CM | 2001
RUINE | OIL ON CANVAS | 80 X 162 CM | 2000
TIANBING LI
Born September 19, 1974 in Guilen, China
Tianbing Li was born in Guilin, China and currently lives and works in Paris.
Education
1997-2002 Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris.
2002
Graduated from the ENSBA with the unanimous congratulations of the jury.
Exhibitions
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
Art Miami 2004, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Miami
Palm Beach Contemporary 2004, Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Palm Beach
Biennale d’Issy, Issy-les-Moulineaux (award-winner)
Pas n’importe où, just à côté (award-winner) — Couvent des Cordeliers, Paris
Solo Exhibition | Galerie Crous-des-Beaux-Arts, Paris
Group Exhibition | Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, New York
Solo Exhibition | Galerie Donzévansaanen, Lausanne
Group Exhibition | Première Vue, Passage de Retz, Paris
Group Exhibition | Galerie Kashya Hildebrand Geneva, Switzerland
Biennale de la jeune création de Houilles
Salon de la jeune création
Solo Exhibition | Galerie Grande Masse des Beaux-Arts, Paris
Solo Exhibition | Galerie Les Créations du possible, Paris.
Solo Exhibition | Musée Marzelles, Marmande
Group Exhibition | Novembre à Vitry, Paris
Solo Exhibition | Laroque | Timbaut
Group Exhibition | Académie des Beaux-Arts, Institut de France, Paris
Solo Exhibition | Eglise Sainte Foy, Pujols
Group Exhibition | Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik
Group Exhibition | Pavillon Mestrovic, Zagreb
Salon Grands et Jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Paris
Solo Exhibition | Société Générale, Villeneuve sur Lot
Solo Exhibition | Eglise St. Pierre d’Orival et Donjon
Group Exhibition | Galerie Progres, Belgarde
Solo Exhibition | Ecole Polytechnique, Paris
Press and Other Media
Several articles in the following daily newspapers:
Sud-Ouest, La Dépêche du Midi, La Gazette de la Vallée du Lot,
Le Petit Bleu de l’Agan, Liberation, Le Figaro
A television interview TV Belgrade.
A report on ARTE (25/09/1999)
Publications
Liberté et ordre - Maison d’édition des Beaux-Arts du peuple de la Chine, 2001,165 pages
IMPRESSUM
Photography
Yves Breton
Design
René V. Steiner
Printer
Buchdruckerei Grenchen
Thanks to
My parents
Yi-chu Chen
TIANBING LI
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KASHYA HILDEBRAND GALLERY
KASHYA HILDEBRAND GALLERY